Homeless man spends 12 days at sea without food or water, reaches Andhra Pradesh

This man's ordeal puts the spotlight on plights of homeless people in the world.
Homeless man spends 12 days at sea without food or water, reaches Andhra Pradesh
Homeless man spends 12 days at sea without food or water, reaches Andhra Pradesh
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Mohammad Roman Hussen, a Bangladeshi national, is presently undergoing treatment in Visakhapatnam's King George Hospital. 

The 24-year-old, was rushed to the hospital, after he was found in a semi-conscious state in an empty container that was unlocked while unloading cargo containers from a ship at a Visakhaputanam Port on Wednesday.

Hussen had spent 12 days at sea in the container without food or water.

The container was empty and was booked by a Visakhapatnam company, and had sailed from Chittagong in Bangladesh to the Andhra coast.

After boarding a bus from Dhaka to Chittagong, a tired Hussen reportedly found an open container where he dozed off.

Unaware of his presence, workers at the dock locked the container and loaded it onto the ship.

“It is a miracle that he survived without food and water for so many days. We will send him back to his country after he recovers and becomes fit to travel," Inspector Venkat Rao, from the One Town police station of the city told TNM

According to the police, Hussen had been homeless for the past ten years, ever since his parents died.

"He also claims that his neighbours took over the house after his parents died. He has been identified as a resident of Vikrampur village in Munshiganj district of Bangladesh," the inspector added.

In July 2016, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had told the Parliament that around 280,000 people have been recorded as homeless in Bangladesh. 

The problem of homelessness across the world seems to be getting worse. 

According to the Census of 2011, India has more than 1.7 million homeless residents, of which 938,384 are located in urban areas.

Though a study says there has been an overall decline in the homeless population from the last Census. While there has been a 28% decline reported from rural India, there has been a 20% increase in homeless people living in the cities.

In India, Uttar Pradesh had the highest proportion of homeless people in the country. Of the total homeless, more than 18% were from UP, followed by Maharashtra (11%) and Rajasthan (10%).

Among the southern states, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest growth in urban homeless. As compared to 2001, the number of urban homeless people was higher by 13.5% in 2011.

As opportunities for education and employment are better in urban India, the percentage of migration has also increased. According to census 2011, a total of 98 million people have migrated during the last decade out of which 36 million migrated to urban areas.

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